Review: "Simply the Best" by Middleton and Petitt

What makes a school or school system successful? Good teachers and thriving students, say Kelly E. Middleton and Elizabeth A. Petitt, in their book, Simply the Best: 29 Things Students Say the Best Teachers Do Around Relationships. In this book geared towards teachers, Middleton and Petitt asked students what things the best teachers do and listed 29 things in the book along with tips, research, and much more.

“The best teachers know us personally.” In the Mason County school district in Maysville, Kentucky, the teachers have all made it a point to personally visit the home of each of their students in preschool up to grade twelve before school starts in order to get to know them better, meet their families, and build a personal relationship before classes even begin. As a result, the students in that district are excelling.

“The best teachers remember our names and use them.” Names are intertwined with identity and students use this as one of the yardsticks to measure their first impression of teachers. School staff must take extra precautions to ensure they take the time to learn to pronounce difficult or unique names, conveying to students that they appreciate not only the unique or beautiful nature of their name, but also the person who owns it. Being a uniquely-named person myself, I can appreciate this.

“The best teachers check on us when we are sick or even when we have sickness in our family.” Teachers in the Mason County school district call home if students miss more than one consecutive day, sometimes calling daily to check on them. They send hand-written notes, cards, make visits to home and hospitals, and more to let their students know they care. They even have the entire class make a phone call saying, “We miss you!” to make the ill student feel special. They also help the student get back on track if they miss too much school, instead of just letting them fall behind.

These are just a few of the many amazing tips this book has to offer for educators. It also has many places to reflect on your own role as a teacher, how you’re doing with letting your students know you care, and how your district is dealing with the children they are entrusted. This book is an invaluable resource to any educator; be it a teacher or school board official.

Simply the Best is available on Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, and AuthorHouse.com and retails for $21.99. Click on this link to preview the first 26 pages of Simply the Best. You can also find more information on Middleton’s website.

Thank you to AuthorHouse for sending us a complimentary copy of this book to base this review upon.

Bing's Teacher Appreciation Website Teams Up With DonorsChoose.org

We have always tried to teach our 6yr old son to appreciate his teachers and school in general. "Santa" even left a Donors Choose card in his stocking last Christmas so that he can learn about how many teachers are not fortunate enough to have much-needed equipment for their classrooms or even have the basics, like pencils and binders.

Last month was Teacher Appreciation Month. In honor of teachers everywhere, Bing's Teacher Appreciation Website has made it their goal to spread the word about the wonderful organization that is DonorsChoose.org . When you share a brief story about one of your or your children's favorite teachers, you will receive a $5 DonorsChoose.org giving code to use towards helping a classroom in need in the United States. You can share up to 5 stories about five individual teachers. That means you could have $25 to use on Donors Choose to help one or more classrooms.

Sharing a story could not be any easier. You need only provide the teacher's last name and the school in which he or she teaches. Then you have a chance to tell in what way this teacher positively impacted you or your child's life. The most difficult part was trying to say what I wanted to relay in only a few sentences. For my first teacher to recognize, I chose my son's kindergarten teacher. She is an amazing teacher, who made sure my son's first year of elementary school was an extremely positive one.

I invited my son to decide where our donation should go on Donors Choose. There were several ways to filter the causes, so that you can narrow down your choices more easily. We looked for teachers making requests in our own state. Then we chose a category. My son selected the category of special needs. Last time we made a donation, he chose the category of literacy. As I was reading all the requests to my son, he saw this picture on the computer screen below where I was reading.

This picture accompanied a request for jiggler massagers for a special needs classroom containing students with Autism spectrum disorder. My son was sure this was the teacher we should help because these students really must have these jigglers and I wholeheartedly agreed. I know my son chose this cause because of how fun and colorful the jigglers looked, but he will understand better later on how much good we did when we get to read letters of thanks and photos from this classroom we have helped.

If you are a teacher or know of one whose classroom is underfunded and cannot afford much-needed supplies, you should encourage them to make a product request on DonorsChoose.org . Every teacher deserves to have their jobs made less difficult by having adequately equipped classrooms.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Bing and received a $100 DonorsChoose.org giving code to facilitate my review. Mom Central also sent me a thank-you gift certificate.